Bingham graduated from Brown University in 1988.[2] He then received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. His fiction and non-fiction appeared in The New Yorker, and he worked for two years as a reporter for the Cambodia Daily. He wrote the short story collection Pure Slaughter Value and the novel Lightning on the Sun. Robert Bingham died of a heroin overdose at age 33 on November 28, 1999, six months after getting married and five months before the publication of his novel.[3] In Robert Bingham's honor, the PEN American Center has established the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, which awards $25,000 to the most exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work represents distinguished literary achievemen